PR 5581 
.P3 
1892 



Tennyson's Life and 

Poetry: and Mistakes 
Concerning Tennyson 



H 



By EUGENE PARSONS. 



Tennyson's Life and 

Poetry: and Mistakes 
Concerning Tennyson ■ 



f 



,1- 

By EUGENE PARSONS. 





MAY 13 






'if3n' 



, \ "^ cv n \ 






COPYRIGHT, 1892, By EUGENE PARSONS. 



Printed by The Craig Press, Chicago, 



::> 



CONTENl S 



V^ 



PAGE 

Introductory Note, ..... 5 

Texn'ysox's Life and Poetry, . . . . S 

Mistakes Concerning Tennyson, . , . 22 

Translations of Tennyson's Works, . . .31 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 



There is already an extensive Tennyson literature. Of books re- 
lating to the sc lies connected with his life and works, ;ire Walters' 
In Tennyson Land; Brooks' Out of D^ors ivith Tennyson; also 
Church's Laureate's Count/y, and Napier's Homes and Haunts 
cf Lord ToDivson. There is a mass of material, both critical 
and biographical, in Shepherd's Tcnnysoniana ; Wace's Life 
and Works of Tennyson ; Tainsh's Study of the Works of 
Tennyson ; Jennings' Sketch of Lord Tennyson; and Van Dyke's 
Poetry of Tennyson. Besides these may be mentioned Brightwell's 
Tcnnvson Concordance ;\\\in^''s Tennyson /'Lester'' s, Lord Tennyson 
and the Bible; a'so Collins' Illustrations of Tennyson. 

Valuable help for understanding and appreciating In Mem- 
oriam is afforded bv the volumes on that poem written by Robertson, 
Gatty, Genung, Chapman and Davidson. ISIuch interesting infor- 
mation is given in Dawson's Study of " The Princess""; Mann's 
Tcnuvson's '■'■Maud'''' Vindicxted; Elsdale's Studies in the Idyls; 
and Xutt's Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail. A collection 
of Tennvson's songs, sot to music bv various composers, has been 
issued by Stanley Lucas and by Harper & Bros. 

Several volumes of selections from Tennvson's writings have 
appeared as follows: Ausg-czvcihltc Gcdichte^ with notes (in Ger- 
man) bv Fischer, Salzwcdel, 1S7S; Lyrical Poems of Alfred 
7V/^//r5f5«, with notes (in Italian) by T. C. Cann, Florence, 1SS7; 
Lyrical Poems of Lord Tennyson, annotated by F. T. Palgrave; 
Select Poems of Tennyson, and 2'ouno- People'' s Tennyson., both 
edited bv W. J. Rolf e; Tennyson Selections, with notes by F. J. 
Rowe and W. T. Webb; and Tennyson for the I'oung-^ edited by 
Alfred Ainger. 

Among school editions of Tennyson's poems, are The Princess, 
with notes by Rolfe, also by Wallace; Enoch Arden, with notes by 
Rolfe, bv Webb, and by Blaisdel; Enoch Arden, with notes (in 



6 INTRODUCTORY. 

German) by Hamann, Leipzrg, 1S90; Enoch Arden^ with notes 
(in French) by Courtois, Paris, 1S91; Enoch Ardcn, with notes (in 
French) by Beljame, Paris, 1S91; Z.cs Idyllcs die roi^ Enoch 
Ardcn, with notes (ni French) by Baret, Paris, 1SS6; Enoch 
Ardcn^ Ics Idyllcs dii roi^ with notes (in French) by Sevrette, 
Paris, 1887; -li'/wtv-'j- /^/<V(/, annotated by Webb; 7^he T-vo Voices 
and ^1 Dream of Fair Wonicn^ by Corson; The Conii)ig of Arthur 
and The Passing- of Arthur ^hy Rowe; In Me/nor iani and other 
poems, by Kellogg. 

Innumerable papers on Tennyson and his poetry have been pub- 
lished in newspapers and periodicals. A large number of these re- 
views and some descriptive articles are containetl in the following 
volumes: Home's Spirit of the Age; How itt''s Homes and Haunts 
of British Poets ; Hamilton's Poets-Laureate df England ; Rob- 
ertson's lectures j' Kingsley's JSIiscellanics ; Bagehot's Literary 
Studies/ Japp's Three Great Teachers ; Buchanan's Master 
Spirits/ Austin's Poets of the Period/ For man's Our Living 
Poets / Fris\vell's JModcrn Men of Letters / Haweis' Poets in the 
Pulpit / 'hlcCric''s~Peligion of Our Literature / Devey's Compar- 
ative Estimate of English Poets / Gladstone's Gleanings of Past 
Tears / Archer's English Dramatists of To-Day/ Stedman's 
Victorian Poets / Cooke's Poets and Problems / Frascr's Chaucer 
to Longfellozu / Dawson's Makers of Modern English / Egan's 
Lectures on English Literature / and Ritchie's Light-Bearers. 

For favorable or unfavorable estimates of Tennyson, the reader 
is referred to the lectures of Dowden and Ingram in the Dublin 
Afternoon Lectures on Literature and ^Irt^ and to the collected 
essays of Brimley, Bayne, Hadley, Masson, Stirling, Roscoe, Hav- 
ward, Hutton, Swinburne, Galton, Noel, Heywood, Bayard Tavlor 
and others. 

Some side-lights are thrown on the Laureate in Ruskin's Mod- 
ern Painters/ Hamerton's Thoughts on Art / Masson's Recent 
British Philosophy / AwiS. Arnold's Lectures on Translating Homer. 
Stray glimpses of the man in his personal relations are found in the 
Carlyle and Emerson Correspondence / Fanny Kemhle's Records 
of a Girlhood/ Caroline Fox's Memories of Old Friends ; Reid's 
Life of Lord Houghton / anil in the Letters and Literary Re- 
mains of Edzcard Fitzgerald. 

But with all that has been written concerningf Tennvson, no 
monograph, so far as I am aware, has hitherto appeared which is at 
once comprehensive and accurate. Mrs. Ritchie's beautiful portrai- 
ture of the Laureate, with its touch of hero-worship, lacks a great 
deal of being a survey of his literary career. No biography of Al- 



INTRODUCTORY. 7 

fred Tennyson has been published which is worthy the name. For 
many years students and lovers of the poet encountered difficulty in 
obtaining full and exact information on the chief events of his life. 
I undertook to supply this want in the essay entitled "Tennyson's 
Life and Poetry." 

In the preparation of this paper, I had occasion to consult various 
periodicals and works of reference. With scarcely an exception, I 
/ouiid the articles on Tennyson in cyclopedias and biographical dic- 
tionaries faulty in many particulars. Even the sketches in recent 
compilations and journals are full of misleading and conflicting state- 
ments. I became impressed with the thought that these errors ought 
to be exposed and corrected. The result was the critique — "Mis- 
takes concerning Tennyson." I gathered my materials from a 
variety of sources, and always aimed to disengage the truth. I de- 
pended largely on Rev. Alfred Gatty, Mrs. Ritchie, Mr, Gosse, 
Prof. Palgrave, Prof. Church, Mr. C. J. Caswell, and Dr. Van 
Dyke as the most trustworthy authorities. 

My thanks are due Dr. W. F. Poole, of the Newberry Library, 

for placing at my disposal an immense collection of bibliographies, 

catalogues and bulletins of foreign books. I desire also to express 

my obligations to Dr. Henry van Dyke, of New York City, for 

aiding me in my researches. 

Eugene Parsons. 

3612 Stanton Ave., Chicago, 
Aprils i8g2. 



TENNYSON S LIFE AND POETRY. 



Alfred Tennyson was born August 6, 1S09, ia Somersby, a 
wooded hamlet of Lincolnshire, England. "The native village of 
Tennyson," says Howitt, who visited it many years ago, "is not 
situated in the fens, but in a pretty pastoral district of softly sloping 
hills and large ash trees. It is not based on bogs, but on a clean 
sandstone. There is a little glen in the neighbor iiood, called by the 
old monkish name of Holywell." There he was brought up amid 
the lovely idyllic scenes which he has made famous in the "Ode to 
Memory" and other poems. The picturesque "Glen," with its 
tangled underwcod and purling brook, was a favorite haunt of the 
poet in childhood." On one of the stones in this ravine he inscribed 
the words — Byron is Dead — ere he was fifteen. 

Alfred was the fourth son of the Rev. George Clayton Tenny- 
son, LL.D., rector of Somersby and other neighboring parishes. 
His father, the oldest son of George Tennyson, Esq., of Bayons and 
Usselfey Hall, was a man of uncommon talents and attainments, who 
had tried his hand, with fair success, at architecture, painting, music 
and poetry. His mother was a sweet, gentle soul, and exceptionally 
sensitive. The poet-laureate seems to have inherited from her 
his refined, shrinking nature. 

Dr. Tennyson married Miss Elizabeth Fytche, August 6, 1805. 
Their first child, George, died in infancy. According to the parish 
registers, the Tennyson family consisted of eleven children, viz.: 
Frederick, Charles, Alfred, Mary, Emily, Edward, Arthur, Septi- 
mus, Matilda, Cecilia and Horatio. They formed a joyous, lively 
household — amusements being agreeably mingled with their daily 
tasks. They weje all handsome and gifted, with marked mental 
traits and imaginative temperaments. They were especially fond of 
reading and story-telling. At least four of the boys were addicted to 
verse-writing — a habit they kept up through life, though Alfred 



Tennyson's life and poetry. 9 

alon. devoted himself to a poetical caveer as something more than a 
oaslime Frederick Tennyson's occasional pieces are characte, .zed by 
CXt fancy and chaste diction; the sonnets of Charles won h,gh 
prairfrom Coleridge, but the fame of both has been overshadowed 

bv that of their distinguished brother.' 

' The scholarly clergy..an, who was an M. A. of Can^bralge, care- 
fully attended to the education and training of his children He 
turned his gifts and accomplishments to good account m stnmdatn.g 
eir men;;d growth. Alfred was sent to the Louth Grammar 
School four vears (1816-20). During this time he presumably 
learned something, although no flattering reports of his progress have 
come down to • us. Then private teachers were employed b> Di 
xZyson to instruct his boys, but he took upon himself for the mos 
p.,-t the burden of fitting them for college. Only a -f ^^^^^.^X;^ 
Ttudy was imposed by the rector. A great deal of the time Alf r d 
was out of doors, rambling through the pastures and woods about 
Somersby and Bag Enderby. He was solitary, not caring to mingle 
w th oLr boys in their sports. As a child, he exhibited the same 
peculiarities which characterized the mam He was shy and rese ved, 
moody and absent-minded. Alfred and Charles were devotedly at- 
tached to each other, and frequently were together in their walks. 
The lads were both large and strong for their age. Charles was a 
popular boy in Somersby on account of his frank, genial disposition- 
which cannot be said of the reticent Alfred. 

One incident connected with the poet's education at home is worth 
reoeatin-. His father required him to memorize the odes of Horace 
Ind to Incite them morning by morning , until the four books were 
gone through. The Laureate in later years testified to the value of 
fhis practice in cultivating a delicate sense for metrical — • He 
called Horace his master. Certainly no other bard has ever excelled 
Tennyson in the art of expressing himself in melodious verse. 

From his twelfth to his sixteenth year, Alfred was apparen ly 
idle much of the time, yet he was unconsciously preparmg for -his^ 
life-work. He was gathering material and storing up impressions 
which were afterwards utilized. It was with him a formative period. 
The hours he spent strolling in lanes and woods were not wasted 
The quiet, meditative boy lived in a realm of the imagination, and 
his thoughts and fancies took shape in crude poems. 

This period of da) -dreaming was followed by one of marked 

"~r;^^;;^U,n.es of verse by Frederick Tennyson ^ 
contributed a sonnet to the roris/ar^ Annual for .83^. 



10 TKNNVSON S LlFE AND POETRY, 

intellectual activity. The thiiu volume — Poems by Txl'o Brothers^ 
printed in 1S26, contained the pieces written by Alfred when he was 
only sixteen or seventeen. It shows that these were busy years. 
The Tennyson youths not only scribbled a great deal of verse — they 
ranged far and wide in the fields of ancient and modern literature. 
Their father had a good library, and thej'* appreciated its treasures. 
In the footnotes of their first biok were many curious bits of infor- 
mation, and quotations from the classic-;. 

The Tennyson children were fortunate in having cultured parents. 
They were favored in another respect. Dr. Tennyson was comfor- 
tably well off for a clergyman. Ilis means — which he shrewdly 
husbanded — enabled the family to spend the summers at ISIablethorpe 
on the Lincolnshire coast. Thus Alfred's passion for the sea was 
earlv developed. For some time it was the rectoi;'s custom to occupy 
a dwelling in Louth during the school year. In this way the seclu- 
sion and monotony of Somersby life were broken. The young Ten- 
nvsons saw considerable of the world. They were often welcomed 
in the home of their grandmother, JSIrs. Fytche, in Westgate Place, 
and occasionally visited the stately mansion at Bayons. Especially 
Charles and Alfred were at times the guests of their great-uncle 
Samuel Turner, vicar of Grasby and curate of Caistor, who after- 
wards left his property and parish livings to his favorite, Charles 
Tennyson Turner. Such were the experiences of the Laureate's 
youth and childhood, which inevitably influenced his whole life and 
entered into his poetrv. He illustrates the truth that a poet is largely 
what his environment makes him. 

Bvron exercised a magical spell over him in his teens, and this 
influence is apparent in his boyish ihymes which are tinged with 
Bvronic melancholy. Afterwards Keats gained the ascendency. 
As a colorist, Tennyson owes much to this gorgeous word-painter, 
whom he has equaled, if not surpassed, in his own field. 

Alfred, in his boyhood, gave unmistakable indications of genius. 
During his university course at Cambridge, he was generally looked 
upon as a superior mortal, of whom great things were expected by 
his teachers and fellow-collegians. Dr. Whewell, his tutor, treated 
him with unusual respect. 

While at Trinity college ( 1S2S-31) he formed friendships which 
lasted till death ended them one by one. It was indeed a company 
of choice spirits with whom Tennyson had the good fortune to be 
associated. Amolig them were Thackeray, Helps, Garden, Sterling, 
Thompson, Kinglake, Maurice, Kemble, Tililnes, Trench, Alford, 
Brookfield, Merivale, Spedding and others. Besides these, he num- 
bered among the friends of his earlv manhood Fitzgerald, Hare, 



TENNYSON S LIFE AND POETRY. II 

Hunt, Carlyle, Gladstone, Rogers, Landor, Forster, the Lushing- 
tons and other famous scholars and men of letters. 

In the companionship of such men, he found the stimulus neces- 
sary for the development of his poetical faculty. They all regarded 
him with feelings of warmest admiration.' The young poet had at 
least a few appreciative readers during the ten or twelve years of ob- 
scurity when the public cared little for his writings. He was en- 
couraged by their words of commendation to pursue the bard's divine 
calling, to which he was led by an overmastering instinct. He could 
afford to wait and smile at his slashing reviewers. Meanwhile he 
profited by the suggestions of his critics. In this respect he presents 
a striking contrast to Browning. He mercilessly subjected his pro- 
ductions to the most painstaking revision.^ He attempted various 
styles, and experimented with all sorts, of metres. Thus he served 
his laborious apprenticeship and acquired a mastery of his art. His 
eminent success has confirmed the expectations of his youthful ad- 
mirers. 

During his stay at Cambridge, Tennyson met Arthur Henry 
Hallam, a son of the historian. Hallam, who was a young man of 
extraordinary promise, became the dearest of his friends — more to 
him than brother. Their intimate fellowship was strengthened by 
Arthur's love for the poet's sister. It was his strongest earthly at- 
tachment. In 1S30, the two friends traveled through France to- 
gether, and stopped a while in the Pyrenees. On revisiting these 
mountains long afterward, the Laureate, overcome by reminiscences 
of other days, wrote the affecting lines entitled "In theValleyof 
Cauteretz": 

All along the valley, stream that flashest white, 

Deepening thy voice with the deepening of the night, 

All along the valley, where thy waters flow, 

I walk'd with one I loved two and thirty years ago. 

For all along the valley, while I walk'd to-day. 

The two and thirty years were a mist that rolls away; 

For all along the valiey, down thy rocky bed, 

Thy living voice to me was as the voice of the dead. 

And all along the valley, by rock and cave and tree, 

The voice of the dead was a living voice to me. 

In 1S33, the sudden death of Hallam, then Emily's betrothed, 



1 Edward Fitzjrerald, in a letter written in 1835, says: " I will say no more of Tennyson than 
that the more I have seen of him. the more cause I have to think him great. His little humours and 
grumpinesscs were so droll, that I was always laughing . . I felt what Charles Lamb describes, 
a sense of depression at times from the overshadowing of a so much more lofty intellect than my 
own.'' — Letters atij Literary Remains, vol. i. 

2 " Tennyson has been in town for some time: he has been making fresh poems, which are 
finer, they say, than any he has done. But I believe he is chiefly meditating on the purging and 
subliming of what he has already done: and repents that he has published at all yet. It is fine to see 
how in each succeeding poem the smaller ornaments and fancies drop away, and leave the grand ideas 
single." — Letters 0/ Edward Fitzgerald, vol. i., p. 21. 

\ xtract from a letter dated October 23, 1833. 



12 TENNYSON S LIFE AND POETRY. 

produced on Alfred's mind a deep and ineffaceable impression. While 
brooding over his sorrow, the idea came to him of expressing his 
emotions in verse which might be a fitting tribute to the dead. At 
different times and amid widely varying circumstances, were com 
posed the elegiac strains a\id poe'tic musings that make up "In Mem 
o:iam," a poem representing many moods and experiences. It is a 
work occupying a place apart in literature. Its merits and defects 
are peculiar. There is no other elegy like it, and it may be doubted 
whether, a second In Memoriam will ever be written. Tennyson 
erected an appropriate and imperishable monument to the memory 
of his lost friend. In conferring immortality upon his beloved 
Arthur, he gained it for himself. His best claim on the future is to 
be known and remembered as the author of "In- Memoriam," his 
'masterpiece. 

Equally enduring is the melodious wail — "Break, break, break," 
one of the sweetest dirges in all literature. Hallam was buried (Jan. 
3, 1834) at Clevedon by the Severn, near its entrance to the Bristol 
Channel, v\?ithin sound of the melancholy waves. Singularly 
this exquisite song, which breathes of the sea, was not composed 
here, but "in a Lincolnshire lane at five o'clock in the morning," as 
the Laureate himself has declared. It was written within a year 
after Hallam's death, Sept. 15, 1833. 

Not much has been learned of Tennyson's early manhood. No 
very definite picture can be formed of his life after he left college. 
He seldom wrote letters. Even his most intimate friends could not 
succeed in carrying on a correspondence with him. What happened 
to him is not, however, all a blank. A few scraps relating to his 
history are found in the letters of Carlyle, Fitzgerald, Milnes and 
others. A number of autobiographical fragments are sprinkled 
through the poems which he wrote between 1S30 and 1S50, but they 
refer more to his spiritual development than to the outward events 
which constitute memoirs. 

Mrs. Tennyson and her family continued to live at the Rectory 
after her husband died, March 16, 1S31. In the autumn of i835,sh,.' 
removed to High Beach, Epping Forest, ("In Memoriam," CII., 
CIV., CV.), and about 1S40 to Well Walk, Hampstead. Here she 
made her home the rest of her life with her sister, Mary Ann 
Fytche — nearly all of her sons and daughters having married ami 
scattered. She died February 21, 1865, at the age of eighty- 
four. 

Alfred's university career was cut short by his father's death. 
For some years he remained at home — a diligent student of bonks 
and a close observer of nature, lie roamed back and forth between 



TENNYSON S LIFE AND POETRY. 1 3 

Somersby and London, alternately in solitude and with his friends.' 
Fitzgerald tells of his visiting with Tennyson at the Cumberland 
home of James Spedding in 1S35. 

Here Alfred would spend hour after hour reading aloud "Morte 
d'Arthur" and other unpublished poems, which his scholarly friend 
criticized. In 1S3S, he was a welcome member of the Anonymous 
Club in London, and for several years he had rooms in this city at 
various intervals.^ It was his custom to make long incursions through 
the country on foot, studying the landscapes of England and Wales 
and pondering many a lay unsung. Thus he became familiar with 
the natural features of the places illustrated in his poems with such 
pictorial fidelity and vividness, though not with photographic 
accuracy. 

Through this long period he was unknown to the great world.. 
He lived modestly, though not in actual want. His books brought 
him no substantial returns till long after 1S42. There was but little 
left of his patrimony,, if any, when he was granted a pension of 
,£200 in 1S45. This timely aid was obtained for him by Sir Robert 
Peel, chiefly through the influence of Carlyle and Milnes. 

Henceforth fortune graciously smiled upon him and made amends 
for past neglect. His reputation was becoming well established, and 
new editions of his poems were being called for. The Queen chanced 
to pick up one of his earlier volumes, and was charmed with the 
simple story of "The Miller's Daughter." She procured a copy of 
the book for the Princess Alice; this incident, it is related, brought 
him into favor with the aristocracy and gave a tremendous impetus 
to his popularity. After the death of Wordsworth in 1S50, Tenny- 
son was appointed Poet Laureate. Since then he has beeji highly 
esteemed by the i-oyal family, and has produced in their honor 
some spirited odes and stately dedications. 

The poet married (June 13, 1S50) Miss Emily Sellwood, of 
Horncastle, whom he had known from childhood. Her mother was 
a sister of Sir John Franklin, and her youngest sister was the wife 
of Charles Tennyson Turner. Two or three years they lived at 
Twickenham, where Hallam Tennyson was born in 1853. To- 
gether they visited Italv in 1S51, and vivid memories of their travels 



1 "Alfred Tennyson dined with us. I am always a little disappointed with the exterior of our 
poet when I look at him, in spite of his eyes, which are very fine; but his head and face, striking and 
dignified as they are, are almost too ponderous and massive for beauty in so young a man; and every 
now and then there is a slightly sarcastic expression about his mouth that almost frightens me, in 
spite of his shy manner and habitual silence." — Fanny V^evahXc' & Records oj" a Girlhood^ pp. 519-20. 

This entry in Fanny Kemble's journal is dated June 16, 1832. 

2 Fitzgerald, in a letter written in London (April, 1838) says: "We have had Alfred Tennyson 
here; very droll, and very wayward: and much sitting up of nights till two and three in the morning 
with pipes in our mouths: at which good hour we would get Alfred to give us some of his magic 
music, which he does between growling and smoking." — Letters and Literary Remains, vol. i., 
pp. 42, 43. 



14 TENNYSON S LIFE AND TOETKY. 

are recalled in "The Daisy," addressed to his wife. This interesting 
poem, written at Edinburgh, was suggested by the finding of a daisy 
in a book — the flower having been plucked on the Splugen and 
placed by Mrs. Tennyson between the leaves of a little volume as a 
memento of their Italian journey.. The poet's fancy was stirred and 
revived the delicious hours-^ 

In lands of palm and southern pine; 

In lands of palm, of orange-blossom, 
Of olive, aloe, and maize and vine. 

Those who are familiar with Tennyson's poems know how ex- 
alted is his ideal of woman as wife and mother. Lady Tennyson 
seems to have met the poet's exacting requirements almost perfectly. 
What sort of helpmeet she has been he lovingly portrayed in the 
" Dedication," — a tender tribute that was fully deserved. " His most 
lady-like, gentle wife," Fitzgerald called her. Of superior education 
and talent, she was a worthy companion for an author. A number 
of her husband's songs she has set to musx. She has never sought 
public recognition. , Content with the round of duties in a domestic 
sphere, she has lived for husband and children. Their married life 
has been exceptionally harmonious.' 

In 1S53, the Laureate's largely increasing income enabled him ta 
purchase an estate of more than four hundred acres near Freshwater, 
Isle, of Wight. In the lines, " To the Rev. F. D. Maurice," dated 
January," 1S54, the poet depicts his pleasant life in this delightful 
retreat: 

\Yhere, far from noise and smoke of towr, 
I watch the twilight falling brown 

All round a careless-order' d garden 
Close to the ridge of a noble down. 

You'll have no scandal while you dine, 
But honest talk and wholesome wine, 

And only hear the magpie gossip 
Garrulous under a roof of pine: 

For groves of pine on either hand. 
To break the blast of winter, stand ; 

And further on, the hoary Channel 
Tumbles a breaker on chalk and sand. 

In 1S55, Tennyson received the honorary degree of D. C. L. 



1 Milnes, in a letter dated July 20, 1856, gives this glimpse of the Laureate's domestic life:" He 
is himself much happier than he used to be, and devoted to his children, who are beautiful." — Reid^s 
Life 0/ Lord Houghton^ Vol. I, 

2 The time of Tennyson's removal from Twickenham to Farringford can be fi.\ed with tolerable 
definiteness. Fitzgerald writes (Oct. 25, 1853): " ' am going to see the last of the Tcnnysons at 
Twickenham;" and again (in December, 1853): " I hear from Mrs. Alfred they are got to their new 
abode in the Isle of Wight."— Z,t'//frj and Literary Kt-inains, vol. i., pp. 225-6. 



Tennyson's life and poetry. 15 

from Oxford.' His prosperity continued— tiiere being considerable 
profits from judicious investments and immense sales of his books. 
In 1867, he bought an estate near Haslemere, Surrey, " for the purpose 
of enjoying inland air and scenery." Here he built a fine Gothic 
mansion, which is an ideal residence for a poet. Aldworth House is 
situated far up on Blackdown Heath, and overlooks a lovely valley. 
It is near the northern border of Sussex. " The prospect from the 
terrace of the house," says Church, "is one of the finest in the south 
of England." The poet thus pictures the place which has been his 
summer home for more than twenty years: 

Our birches yellowing and frona each 

The light leaf falling fast, 
While squirrels from our fiery beech 

Were bearing off the mast, 
You came, and look'd, and loved the view 

Long-known and loved by me. 
Green Sussex fading into blue 

With one gray glimpse of sea. 

In 1883, the Laureate had amassed property estimated to be 
worth £200,000. He was offered and accepted a peerage during the 
latter part of this year, and became Baron of Aldworth and Farnng- 
ford, January 24, 1884. He took his seat in the House of Lords 
March II. In iS65,he declined a baronetcy offered by the Queen 
as a reward for his loyal devotion to the Crown. Whatever distinc- 
tion may attach to the honorable name of Lord Tennyson, the ma- 
jority of his numerous readers prefer to call him plain Alfred Tenny- 



son. 



It may not be widely known that Baron Tennyson has a splendid 
lineage, of which he has modestly kept silent, unlike Byron. Ac-. 
cording to a writer in the St. Jamcs^ Gazette, who traced his an- 
cestry back to Norman times, Tennyson is descended from an illus- 
trious house of "princes, soldiers, and statesmen, famous in British 
or European history." Some of his remote relatives were crown£d 
heads-one being the celebrated Malcolm HI. of Scotland. In Ten- 
nyson's descent "two lines are blended," says Church, " the middle 
cfass line of the Tennysons, and the noble and even royal line of 
the D'Evncourts."- 

Alfred's uncle, the Right Hon. Charles Tennyson-D'Eyncourt of 
Bavons Manor in Lincolnshire, was a man of marked ability and 



He is also president of the London Library. 

was related to Madame de Maintenon."-Church's Laureate s Country, p. lO. 



i6 Tennyson's life and poetry. 

culture, who held various public ofHces, and represented several bor- 
oughs in parliament from iSiS to 1S53. Since his death, in 1861, 
the family estate has successively passed to his three sons — George 
Hildyard, Admiral Edwin Chuton, C. B. (1S71), and Louis Charles 
(1S90), the present inheritojf of the D'Eyiftourt seat and dignity. 

The poet's last years have been clouded by the bereavement of 
many old frientls and relati\es. Septimus, Charles,' j\Iarv,- Emily,' 
and Edward are dead. He suffered a severe blow in the death of 
his second son Lionel, while on the homeward voyage from India.* 
He mourns his loss in the touching stanzaS: — " To the J^Ln'quis of 
Dufferin and Ava,'' 

Lord Tennyson was the recipient of many congratulations on the 
occasion of his eightieth birthday, August 6, 1SS9. -The same year 
Was marked bv the publication of a new volume of poems, which 
attest that his intellectual vigor is unimpaired by age or bodilv weak- 
ness. A daintv little poem of his — "To Sleep" — was published in 
the Arit" Jvcv/czc ior March, iS9i,and it is not improbable that others 
will see the light in the near future. 

Tennxson's health, though quite robust for an octogenarian, has 
been broken of late. In the spring of 1S90, he was troubled with a 
grievous illness, the result of exposure to cold — he having persisted 
in taking his '' dailv two hours' walk along the cliff" in all kinds of 
weather. It was expected that the poet would spend the following 
winter in the South to avoid the rigorous climate of the Isle of 
Wight, but he recovered sufficient strength to remain at Farringford 
House amid the scenes he loves so well. 

, 'T'ennvson has always shunned publicity, living in a world apart — 
removed from the gaze of the profane crowd. He rarely goes into 
society, preferring rural retirement to social converse. As poet and 
man, he has gained bv this voluntary seclusion. His delight is to 
mingle with the worUl of nature. The woods nnd skies, the streams 
and billows have been his comrades. How much they have contrib- 
uted to his poetic greatness cannot be estimated. He is, however, a 
recluse with his eyes open. He has watched the progress of man- 



I Edward Fitzgerald, in a letter written soon after Charles Turner's death (April 25, J870I1 
sjys: " Tennyson's elder, not eldest, brother isdead; and I was writing only yesterday to persuade 
^.•eddingto insist on Macmillan publishing a complete edition of Charles' Sonnets: graceful, tender, 
beautiful, and quite original little things." — Letters and Literary Remains, vol. i., p. 437. 

a Mary Tennyson ( 1810-1SS4) married the Hon. Alan Ker, Puisine Judge of the Supreme 
Court of Jamaica. 

3 Emily Tennyson (18M-18S7), who was betrothed to Arthur Hallam about 1830, became the 
wife of Capt. Richard Jesse, R. N. 

4 The Hon. Lionel Tennyson was attacked by jungle fever d.-ring a visit to India, and died on 
board the Chusan, near Aden, April jo, rSS6, aged thirty-two. He was a profound student of dra- 
matic poetry, and would have won a name for himself in literature. Eor several years he was con- 
nected with the India office, and prepared a masterly report on " The Moral and Material Condition 
of India," for 1SS1-2. In 187S, he married the accomplished daughter of Frederick Locker. The 
eldest of their three sons is the "golden-haired Ally " who inspired the well-known verses of his 
grandfather. 



Tennyson's lif/, and poetry. 17 

kind and observed the trend of the times. ReaH/.ing the needs of 
the age, he grandly rosj to the occasion — either to Hft up his voice 
in protest against its faults, or to sing its achievements^^/^ 

Ft)r many vears no strangers have been admitted to Farringford 
Park. Visitors, while welcome at Aldworth in the afternoon, have 
not been allowed to interrupt the accustomed occupations of the 
master of the house, who is very methodical in his haliits. It has long 
been his custom to rise early and spend the morning hours in his study 
— writing and dreaming in an atmosphere laden with smoke and the 
odor of tobacco. He now uses the pen but little, owing to failing 
eyesight. The Honorable Hallam Tennyson is his secretary and 
constant companion. 

^/rersonallv, his lordship is a man who would attract attention 
auvwhere, with his stalwart form slightly stooping, his noble face, 
his long flowing hair and bushy beard. He dresses carelessly, and 
when out of doors wears a shocking bad hat; with his cloak and 
walking-stick, he makes a picturesque figure. He is a confirmed 
pedestrian. " Every morning," says a newspaper correspondent, 
" in hail, rain or snow, the poet dons his frouzy cap and his frouzier 
slouch hat, and promenades for an hour or so, none daring to disturb 
him." 

Tennyson is taciturn and brusque before strangers, whose pres- 
ence annoys him, but he is delightfully easy and spontaneous with 
friends. /Edward Fitzgerald, in his letters to Frederick Tennyson 
and others, alludes again and again, in terms of enthusiastic apprecia- 
tion, to Alfred's wise and pointed conversation. One of his original 
"savings, which strike the nail on the head," was about Dante. It 
is well worth quoting in Fitzgerald's concise language, taken from a 
letter written in 1S76: 

" What Mr. Lowell says of him recalled to me what Tennyson 
said to me some thirty-five or forty years ago. We were stopping 
before a shop in Rege it street where were two figures of Dante afid 
Goethe. I (I suppose) said, 'What is therein old Dante's face that is 
missing in GcEthe's?' And Tennyson (whose profile then had cer- 
tainly a remarkable likeness to Dante's) said: ' The divine.'" 

/^From first to last Alfred Tennyson has recognized that the mis- 
sion of the poet is that of an testhetic teacher. Much has he done to 
educate English-speaking people in the appreciation of beauty. But 
he is emphatically more than this. A man of stainless reputation, 
his deeds and words have almost invariably been on the side of right- 
eousness. His career has been free from the excesses \vhich dis- 
graced the lives of Marlowe and Shelley, of Byron and Poe. He is 
rather to be ranged with the Spensers and Miltons, the Wordsworths 



1 8 Tennyson's life and poetry. 

and J3ro\vnings, as a defeinler of truth and religion. In the main he 
has steadfastly kept in mind the austere ideal — 

Of those who, far aloof 
From envy, hate ami pity, and spite and scorn, 
Live the great life which all our giffatest fain 
Would follow, cehter'd in eternal calm. 



II. 

The current of Tennyson's genius is like a rivulet placidly flowing 
through meadows and groves, occasionally ripplinjr and swirling over 
sfones, then pursuing its even course— gradually widening and deep- 
ening; not like a mighty river proudly sweeping in a resistless flood 
through a wilderness, or tumbling down rocky chasms. All that he 
has given the world during sixty years of literary activity is contained 
in less than a 'dozen volume's of verse. Only a rapiJ survey of his 
poetical career is attempted here. 

Passing by without comment Poems by Tiuo Brothers (1826), 
"The Lover's Tale" (composed about 1828), and " Timbuctoo " 
(1829), we come to Tennyson's first bid for fame in Pocms^chiejly 
Lyrical^ 1^30)- This slender volume included (along with much 
rubbish) a few pieces which are perennial favorites with lovers of 
Tennyson, viz.: "Mariana," "Recollections of the Arabian Xights," 
"The Dying Swan," "A Dirge," "Love and Death," and "Circum- 
stance." Among the poems suppressed in later editions is one in an 
unusual vein — "Nero to Leander" — which Emerson inserted in his 
Parfiassus. 

His second book of Poems (1833) was a more ambitious venture. 
Its contents, though marred by faults of crude taste, possessed in a 
marked degree, the characteristic qualities of the Laureate's poetry. 
Nearly all of the lyrics in it have been found worthy of a permanent 
place in the collected editions of his poems, but most of them under- 
went countless changes before they were republished in 1842 — being 
corrected and polished till they were well-nigh perfect from a critical 
standpoint. 

The two volumes of Poems (1S42) revealed Tennyson at his 
best — a mature sitiger whose dignified, harmonious verse compares 
favorably with the most splendid contributions to British poetry. 
"The Princess" (1S47), "'In Memoriam" (1850), and "Maud" 
(1855) made his position secure as the greatest of living poets. 

Not satisfied to rest content as a Ivrist, Tenr-.yson essayed ex- 



TENNYSON S LIFE AND POETRY. i9 

tended narrative in Idyls of the King (1859) and "Enoch Arden" 
( 1S64). Gaining courage from the enthusiast;ic reception of the four 
Arthurian idyls, he undertook to carry out a long cherished design — 
which Milton and Dryden had conceived — of writing a national epic 
on King Arthur. He had already made several attempts at versify- 
ing incidents from the Mabinogion and Malory's old romance 
Morte cP Arthur^ but they were isolated fragments. From time to 
time he added others, making the series of tales called the Round 
Table a complete cycle as follows: 

The Coming of Arthur, 1869; Gareth and Lynette, 1872; 
Geraint and Enid, 1S59; Balin and Balan, 1S85; Merlin and Vivien, 
1S59; Lancelot and Elaine, 1859; The Holy Grail, 1869; Pelleasand 
Ettarre, 1S69; The Last Tournament, 1S71; Guinevere, iS59;The 
Passing of Arthur, 1S42, 1869. 

Then boldly entering the dangerous field of historical drama, 
Tennyson became a rival of Shakspeare himself in "Queen Mary'" 
(1S75), "Harold" (1876), and "Becket" (1884). Besides these, he 
brought forth three shorter plays or dramatic sketches — "The Cup"- 
(i8S4),"The Falcon" ^ ( 18S4), "The Promise of May"* (18S6), and 
a lengthy idyllic drama called "The Foresters"^ ( 1S92). 

As if to prove that his fertility was not exhausted in the province 
of the lyric, he made fresh incursions into fields of song long familiar 
to him. These winnowings of the last two decades are gathered into 
the following volumes: 

Ballads^ and Other Poems ( 1880); Tiresias^ and Other Poems 
(1SS5); Locksley Hall Sixty Tears After ^ etc. (1S86.)', Demetery 
and Other Poems ( 1889). 

Enousfh books have been named to give at least half a dozen 
minstrels a firm footing on Parnassus. The number of Tennyson's 
meritorious performances is simply astonishing. But few poets have 
wrought with such unwearying patience. Not many can present as 
imposing a catalogue of works that are confessedly of such a high 
order of excellence. Browning has written more, but Browning has 
not taken the trouble to perfect himself in form — in short, he is not 
a finished artist. In literary workmanship, Tennyson stands supreme. 
It is universally admitted that none of his contemporaries ranks so high 



1. "Queen Mary" was produced at the Lyceum Theatre, London, in April, 1S76 — Miss Bate- 
man as Mary and Irving as Philip. 

2. "The Cup" was played at the Lyceum in January, 18S1 — Irving taking the part of Synorix 
and Miss Terry that of Camma. 

3. "The Falcon" was presented at St. James' Theatre, London, in December, 1S7C — Mr. Kendal 
playing the role of Count Federigo and Mrs. Kendal that of Lady Giovanna. 

4. "The Promise of May" was performed at the Globe Theatre, London, (Nov. ii-Dec. 16, 
1882), with Mrs. Bernard-Beere as Dora, Miss Emmeline Ormsby as Eva, Mr. Hermann Vezin as 
Edgar and Mr. Charles Kelly as Dobson. 

5 "The Foresters" was produced at Daly's Theatre, New York, (Mar. 17-ApriI 22, 1892),— 
Mr. John Drew in the role of Kobin Hood and Miss Ada Rehan as Maid Marian. 



20 TENNYSON S LIFE AND POETRY. 

;is man of letters. He is tlie brightest ornament of the Victorian 
reign. 

Without doubt the Laureate deserves his hard-won glory. In 
his hale old age, hehas disarmed the critics of years ago who sneered 
at his empty lays ani^ feminine -ways, ^"'he question — Cui bono? 
could be asked as to many of Tennyson's eulier efforts, such as 
"Oriana," "The Lady of Shalott," "Audley Court," "Edwin Morris," 
"Amphion," "Lady Clare," "The Lord of Burleigh," "The Beggar 
!Maid" and others. These lyrics and idyls are made up of ornate 
commonplaces which show the artistic instinct rather than the poetic. 
They abound with the ephemeral conceits of drawing-room poetry. 
They contain nothing that resembles vivacity or sublimity. They 
have not the interest which is general and universal as distinguished 
from the private or the unusual. They are nbt representative of 
human nature, but of individual peculiarities. They are ideal pic- 
tures, not transcripts from experience. 

With a few exceptions, the minor poems published in 1S55 and 
1S64 a.re of similar character; and it may be said that "The Princess," 
"Maud," "Enoch Arden," and most of the Arthurian stories are in 
much ^ic same vein. None of these works, when viewed as an 
organic whole, can be called great. In all of them, manliness is at a 
discount, and there is withal a dearth of ideas. Sentiment and orna- 
ment are overdone, and there is not enough of life. They can be 
described as a chaos of pretty fancies and idle reveries. Such are 
not the strains that shape a nation's destiny and are treasured in its 
heart. In the centuries agone, such a songster would have been a 
first-class troubadour, much sought and praised in princely circles. 

But former estimites of Tennyson must be revised. The slurs at 
the euphonious jingler and effeminate Alfred are in place no more. 
He has abandoned the domain of "the legendary and the fantastic. 
Romance has given way to history, and dreams to reality. S^misu- 
ous effects are now subordinate. His verse no longer cloys with 
sweetness. It is simple, natural, impassioned. 

"Queen Mary" and "Becket" certainly rank foremost among the 
few powerful plays that have appeared since Shelley wrote "The 
Cenci." There are some Bulwer-Lyttonish passages in "Becket," but 
they are more than redeemed by the imperial magnificence, of other 
passages in the same tragedy. The ballads and other lyrics pub- 
lished within the last dozen years displ.ly a rugged virility that was 
quite foreign to the labored "Idyls of the King." "Rizpah" and 
"The Revenge" have the ring of genuine metal. There is no hollow 
sountl in the manly tributes to E. Fitzgerald and to his ancient 
Mntituan master. The introspective poet of "Tlie Two Voices" has 



Tennyson's life and poetry. 21 

grown to fuller intellectual stature in "The Ancient Sage." The 
music and majesty of "Tiresias" and "Demeter" are unsurpassed in 
''Ulysses" and "Tithonus." "Romney's Remorse" excels "Sea 
Dreams" in portraying the better instincts of humanity on the 
domestic side, and its tender lullaby— "Beat upon mine, little heart!" 
—almost equals the incomparable "Sweet and low." While "Vast- 
ness" and "Crossing the Bar" repeat the lyrical triumphs of his 
palmiest days. 

Time has dealt gently with the venerable harper, whose hands 
sweep the strings with surer touch and greater compass than before. 
Age has brought more forceful speech and clearer vision. Some of 
hirsenile efforts betray less of conscious effort, as though long practice 
in using metrical language as a vehicle of thought and imagery had 
made it a pure mirror of the poet's mind. His worn-out mannerisms 
appear occasionally, also his subtleties of expression and feeling. There 
is the same imaginative sorcery as of old, and the same consummate 
style, but the studiedelegance and artful devices of earlier produc- 
tions are less noticeable. There is less of minute finish in form and 
more of epic grandeur in tone and spirit. A healthier inspiration has 
visited him in the evening of life. His genius has gradually ripened. 
The full cup of advanced years was needed to bring out what was 
best in him, to effect his complete development. 

Since the hysterical explosion of "Locksley Hall Sixty Years 
After," the Laureate seems to have attained the calmness of soul 
which belongs to the true poetical spirit. He is no longer the fretful 
author of "The New Timon," "The Spiteful Letter," and "Literary 
Squabbles," who lacked the restraint of entire self-possession. A 
more serious tone pervades the personal poems— "To Ulysses," "To 
Mary Boyle" and others in his 1SS9 volume. A wiser man v>^rote the 
stately measures of "Happy" and "By an Evolutionist," one who 
looked down upon past follies from spiritual heights never before 
reached. There is a touch of Miltonic loftiness in his "Parnassus," 
and the philosophic resignation of Goethe in "The Progress of 
Spring." His is the tranquil, fruitful old age that crowns a well 
ordered career. 



MISTAKES CONCERNING 
TENNYSON. 



A STUDY IX CONTEMPORANEOUS BIOGRAPHY. 

"Alfred Temivson was born August 5, 1S09, at Somersby, a 
hamlet in Lincolnshi.e, England, of which, and of a neighboring 
parish, his father, Dr. George Clayton Tennyson, was rector. The 
poet's mother was Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. Stephen Fytche, 
vicar of Louth. Alfred was the third of seven sons — Frederick, 
Charles, Alfred, Edward, Horatio, Arthur, and Septimus. A 
daughter, Cecilia, became the wife of Edmund Law Lushington, 
long professor of Greek in Glasgow University. Whether there 
were other daughters, the biographies of the poet do not mention.*' 

This is the opening paragraph of the Introduction to a school 
edition of « The Two Voices " and " A Dream of Fair Women," by 
Dr. Hiram Corson. Here are several inaccuracies as to the Tenny- 
son family and the poet's birthday, and the same mistakes and others 
are found in nearly all the sketches of the Laureate in periodicals 
and works of reference. 

It is generally supposed that cyclopedia articles are prepared by 
specialists who know what they are writing about. This is the popu- 
lar conception, but this is evidently not the case in regard to Tenny- 
son, who has fared sadly at the hands of his biographers. The brief 
accounts of his life given in Appleton's, the Americanized Britannica, 
and other cvclopedias fairly bristle with blunders and objectionable 
features. As the*y stand, most of these articles are utterly untrust- 
worthv. Their assertions are often misleading, or so vague as to be 
practically valueless. As a result, most people are more or less at sea 
in resrard to Tennvson chronology. 



MISTAKES CONCERNING TENNYSON. 27, 

Dr. Tennyson and Family. 

A multitude of errors have been perpetrated about Dr. Tennvson 
and family. We are told that Bayons Manor was his native place,' 
and that he w^as " rector of Somersby and vicar of Bennington and 
Grimsby."^ One writer uncritically imagines him a doctor of 
divinity.* According to some questionable authorities, he died 
"about 1830;"^ "in 1830;"^ "about 1831;"^ "on the iSth of 
March, 1S31;"' and in 1832.^ Mrs. Tennyson is said to have died 
"in her eighty-first year;"" also "in her eighty-fourth year.""^ 

The number of sons and daughters in the Tennyson household is 
rarely given correctly. Alfred is called, in a hit-or-miss fashion, one 
of three, four, six, seven and eight brothers. His sisters are various- 
ly reckoned as one, three, four and five. 

The Rev. George Clayton Tennyson was born at Market Rasen, 
December 10, 1778. He graduated at St. John's College, Cambridge, 
in 1801 ; he received the degree of M. A. in 1805, and of LL.D. in 
181 3. He married (August 6, 1805) Miss Elizabeth Fytcbe of 
Louth. He moved to Somersby in iSoS, where he was rector till his 
death. If the inscription on his tomb is to be trusted. Dr. Tennvson 
was rector of two neighboring parishes — Benniworth and Bag End- 
erby — and was vicar of Great Grimsby;" and died March 16, 1S31, 
The poet's mother died Februaiy 21, 1865, in her eighty -fifth year. 

Alfred Tennyson was the fourth of eight sons — George (who 
died in infancy), Frederick, Charles, Alfred, Edward, Arthur, 
vSeptimus, and Horatio. The sisters were Mary, Emily, Matilda, 
and Cecilia. Excepting George and Frederick, all of the children 
were born at Somersby. 

Alfred's Birthday. 
The discussion as to the poet's birthday is now practically at rest 
— his lordship himself having authoritatively settled the matter. 



1 Walter's /« Tennyson Land, p. 62. 

2 Appleton's Cyclopedia, vo' . xv., p. 651. 

3 Johnson's Cyclopedia, vol. vii., p. 755. 

4 I hid. 

5 J. H. Ward, in ^/'/aK//<:i1/(7«////j', Sept., 1879. 

6 Encyclopedia Americana, vol. iv., p. 660. 

7 J. A. Graham, in Art Journal, Feb., 1891. 
f Lodge's Peerage (18S8), p. 597. 

Q Art Journal, Feb., 1891. 

10 Atlantic J/ont/ily, Sept., 1879. 

11 A full transcript of the inscription on the rector's t^mb is given in Church's Laureate's 
Country (p. 27), a work that is simply invaluable to students of I'ennyson. 

'■ Somersby and Bag Fnderby are hamlets about one quarter of a mile apart," says Oatty, "and 
are held by one Rector, who now resides at the latter place." — A'cy to "/« Jllemoriatn." Prelace. 

" Not far from the ' outh-eastern extremity of this Wold country is the little village of Somersby. 
The nearest town to it is Horncastle, which is si.\ miles to the south-east. . . , Somersby is 
something less than fifteen miles from the sea." — LhuKh's Laureate' s Country. 



24 MISTAKES CONCERNING TENNVSON. 

Would that he would enlighten us oa some other perplexhig points 
in his history! Mrs. Tennyson kept August 6 as Alfred's birthday. 
Tourists who have hastily examined the parish registers of Somersby 
have mistaken the figure 6 for a 5, owing to the fading of the ink 
" at the back, or left, of the loop."' But careless hackwriters, de- 
pending upon the compifations published decades ago, continue to 
assert that the Laureate was born August 5;^ April 9,^ or April 6.* 

Year of Tennyson's Birth. 

In Welsh's EngllsJi Literature is a "biography " of Tennyson 
which says, amid various other slips, that he was born in 18 10. 
Allibone's Dictionary of Authors (p. 3371 ) is a year out of the wa}-. 
When this ponderous work was first published, not much was 
''definitely known of the poet, but Alden's Cyclopedia of I^itcrature 
( 1S90), and other unreliable authorities put iSio or iSii as the } ear 
of his birth. 

In the parish registers of Somersby, Dr. Tennyson's handwriting 
records Alfred's birth and baptism among the entries of 1S09. Here 
is an instance where one can put to flight a host — for the names of 
those who assign iSio as the year of the poet's birth are legion.^ 

Tennyson's Schooldays. 

There is a want of precision in many of the statements that have 
been made by Tennyson's biographers concerning his school days. 
In the Encyclopedia Americana (1S89), vol. iv., p. 660, Dr. C. E. 
Washburn says Alfred " attended for a time Cadney's village school, 
and for a brief period the grammar-school at Louth," — which is 
partly true, but curiously misrepresents the matter. He was a pupil 
in Louth Grammar School four years ( 1S16-20)— not a very "brief 
period." Howitt and others make the length of time "two or three 
years," and some have the mistaken impression that he passed some 
time in Cadney's school before he went to Louth. Cadney came to 
Somersby about 1820, and, in the autumn of the next year, he in- 
structed the Tennyson boys in arithmetic at the rectory. Cook er- 



1 C. J. Caswell, in Notes and Queries, March 14, i8}i. Van Dyke's Poetry cf Tennyso>\ 
P- 323- 

2 Davison's Milkers 0/ Modern En^^lisk, p. i6g. 

3 T/ie Grtr/>/tu-,*(Chicaso), Nov. 14, 1891. 

4 T/ie Tridufie, {Chicago), March 26, 1892, p. 14. 

5 Jenkins' Handbook 0/ British and American Literature, p. 400. Emerson's Parnassus, 
p.. xxxiii. Friswell's Modern Men oj" Letters, p 152. Collier's History 0/ Eno'lisk Literature, p. 472. 
Angus' Handbook of English Literature; p. 274. Fo.nh's Nordish Con-Lex , vol. v., p. 66^. 
V{.OK.l^x's Nouvelte Biog. Gcn.,vo\. 44. Lorenz' Cat. Lib. Fran., vol. vi., p. 607. Bleibtreu'c 
Geschichte Eng. Lit., p. 364. Fischer's Atisgcwdhlte Gedichte v. .A Tennyson, p. i. Waldmiiller- 
Duboc's Freundes-Klage, p. 6. Faccioli's A. Tennyson— Jdiiii Liriche, etc., p. ix. 



MISTAKES CONCERNING TENNYSON. 25 

roneously supposes that Charles and Alfred were at Louth in 1827.^ 
There has been ccisiderable guessaig as to the tune when Ten- 
nyson went to Cambridge. He is said to liive entered Trinity 
College in 1S36;- in 1827;^ about 1827;* in 1829;'^ and "early 
in 1829.'"' There is no occasion for such indefiniteness. To be 
exact, Alfred became a student of Trinity in October, 1828.' He 
left college without graduating, at the time of his father's death. 
His brothers, Frederick and Charles, finished the course in 1832. 

COINCIDENCES. 

Tae cyclopedias also present numerous examples of coincidences 
as well as variations — some of the incorrect details being repeated 
almost verbatim, as though successive compilers had copied over and 
over the mistakes of their superficial predecessors. This ought not 
to go on forever. 

The sketches of Tennyson in Lippincott's Biographical Dic- 
tionary ( 1S85) and in' the Americanized Britannica ( 1S90) may be 
taken as samples. In the following sentence from Lippincott's the 
writer manages to make five or six misstatements: 

"In 1 85 1 he succeeded Wordsworth as poet-laureate, and about 
the same time he married, and retired to Faringford, in the Isle of 
Wight, where he reside! until 1869, when he removed to Petersfield, 
Hampshire." 

In the biographical supplement of the Americanized Britannica^ 
this becomes two or three sentences, viz.: 

"He was made poet-laureate in 1851. It was about this time, 
too, that Tennyson married, returning to Faringford, in tlie Isle of 
Wight, where he lived until 1S69 . . . It wa> in this year the 
poet moved from the Isle of Wight and took up his residence in 
Petersfield, Hampshire." 



I Poeis and Problems, p. 73. 

1 am indebted to Mr. C. J. Caswell for his thorough investigations of Tennyson's boyhood. See 
Pall Mall Gazette, June ig, 1890. 

2 Brockhaus' Con-'ersations-Lejc., vol. xv., p. 559. 

3 Lives 0/ English Atithors (1890), p. 308. 

4 Johnson's Cyclopedia, vol. vii., p. 755. 

5 Cook's Poets and Problems , p. 73. 

6 Cassell's X/<^. .E«^. Z-iV., Shorter Poems, p. 465. 

7 Q\iMxc\v% Laureate^ Country, p. 74. Na.'o.'QyV^^f, Poetry 0/ Tennyson, p. 323. 

Frederick Tennyson (a ro-heir of the Earls of Scarsdale) was born June 5, 1807. He was edu- 
cated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he distinguished himself by writing Greek 
verse — winning the prize for a Sapphic ode on " Egypt.'' He married an Italian lady, Maria Guili- 
otta, now dead, by whom he had two sons — Julius and Alfred, — and three daughters— Elise, Emily, 
Matilda. For many years he lived at Tenby in South Wales; at present he resides in Jersey, and 
devotes himself to his favorite Hellenic studies and to poetry. 

Charles Tennyson Turner (born July 4, 1808, died April 25, 1879) attended Louth Grammar 
School (1815-21), and then was fitted for college at home. At Trinity, he did admirable work in the 
classics — obtaining a Bell scholarship. In 1S36, he became vicar of Grasby, where he passed the 
greater part of his life, well-known for his good works. In 1838, he acquired property left him by 
his great-uncle. Rev S.Turner, and assumed the name of Turner by royal license. He married 
Louisa Sellwood, youngest sister of Lady Tennyson; he died at Cheltenham. 



26 MISTAKES CONCERNING TENNYSON. 

There are similar passages' in Appleton's and Johnson's cyclo- 
pedias. If is perfectly plain that there was not much independent 
investigation in these unscholarly performances. 

MISTAKES. * 

Mistake No. i: Tennyson received the Laureateship in 1850, 
the year of Wordsworth's death. Mistake No. 2: he was married 
June 13, 1S50. Mistake No. 3: Farringford is misspelled. Mistake 
No. 4: Tennys'jn lived at Twickenham three years after his 
marriage. Mistake No. 5: in 1853, he first took possession of Far- 
ringford, which is still his winter residence. Mistake No. 6: in 
1867, the poet built a house near Haslemere in Surrey — not at Peters- 
>field, Hampshire — where he spends the summer months. Accord- 
ing to Prof. Church, the Laureate bought the Aldworth estate in 
1S72. The latter date is manifestly wrong.' 

The story of Tennyson's Petersfield establishment may be classed 
as a myth, -though supported by several monuments of research 
called cyclopedias.' 

Nothing is said of a Hampshire home in Jennings' Life of Ten- 
nyson^ in Church's Laureate' s Country, ov in Van Dyke's admirable 
book on the Poetry of Tennyso)i. ; no reference to it is found in the 
essays on Tennyson by Mr. Edmund Gosse and Mrs. Anne Thack- 
eray Ritchie. Nor is Lord Tennyson's name found in the list of 
land owners of Hampshire, in Walford's County Families of the 
United Kingdom. One is puzzled to understand hDW such a report 
started. 

ten.vyson's elevatiox to the peerage. 

It is rather surprising to read in the PeopWs Cyclopedia, John- 
son's, Lippincott's and elsewhere, that Tennyson was raised to the 
peerage in 1SS3 as "Baroa d'Eyncourt," etc. This he cannot 



1 "In 1872, Mr. Tennyson purchased a small estate on the top of Blackdown."' 
Laureate's Country, ch. XVI. On the other hand, Every Saturday, for Jan. i, 1S70, says: 
"Mr. Tennyson has recently built himself a second residence, in a picturesque valley in Surrey." 

"In 1867," says Jennings in his Lord Tennyson (p. 190), "it was announced that Tennyson had 
purchased the Greenhill estate on the borders of Sussex." 

This statement is corroborated by a letter of Milnes, dated July 30, 1867: 

"Our expedition to Tennyson's was a moral success, but a physical failure . . The bard 

was very agreeable, and his wife and son delightful He has built himself a very handsome and 
commanding home in a most inaccessible site, with every comfort he can require, and every dis- 
comfort to all who approach him What can be more poetical?" 

\!,^\&?, Life of Lord Houghton, \<A.\\ , ■p. \l(> 

Here the circumstances point to only one conclusion— that Tennyson was living at Aldworth in, 
the summer of 1867. It is a satisfaction to get down to a solid substratum of truth. 

2 Johnson's Cyeio/>edii, Vol. VII., p. 755-. 
Appleton s Cyclopedia, Vol. XV., p. 652. 
Meyer's Kon'-Lex, vol. XV., p. "jSi. 

}^^n'<i Afanua/of Ent^-iish Literature, p. 309. 

Jenkins' Handbook of British and American Literature, p. 401. 



MISTAKES CONCERNING TENNYSON. 2/ 

properly be called, though a descendant from the ancient house of 
D'Eyncourt — which long ago ceased to be a barony. The pedigree 
of Alfred's grandfather, who belonged to the Lincolnshire gentry, 
is traced through ten generations t3 Edmund, Duke of Somerset, 
and two centuries further back to Edward II I. 's fourth son, John of 
Gaunt. Dr. Tennyson died in the lifetime of his father, and the 
D'Eyncourt seat and dignity passed to his younger brother Charles. 
The port's cousin Louis Charles is the present possessor of the family 
estate at Bayons. England's noble Laureate (according to Burke's 
Peerage^ ed. of 1888, p. 1361) was created a peer of the realm Jan. 
24, 1S84, with the new title — Baron of Aldworth, Surrey, and of 
Farringford, Isle of Wight. He took his seat In the House of 
Lords, Mar. 11, 1S84.' 

LAPSES IN ENGLISH GEOGRAPHY. 

A common mistake; is that of locating Aldworth in Sussex. Mr. 
Frederick Dolman, in the Ladies' Home your?ia/ (^August, 1S91), 
carelessly speaks of "the poet's residences in the fair Isle and sunny 
Sussex." According to Murray's Handbook for Surrey (ed. of 
iSSS, p. 182), and other excellent authorities,- Aldworth is in the 
county of Surrey — not far from the northern borders of Sussex. In 
Walford's County Fafnilies of the United King dojn., p. 1203, Lord 
Tennyson's name occurs among the land owners of Surrey — not 
with those of Sussex. 

Somersby and Somerby have been mixed by many people who 
ere not familiar with English geography. The latter village is in 
he western part of Lincolnshire, near Grantham — a considerable 
distance from Alfred Tennyson's birthplace. Duyckinck, in his 
JS?ninent JSIen and Women, recklessly says he was born at "Som- 
erby, a small parish in Leicestershire."^ 

If Europeans are guilty of crass ignorance of the United States', 
Americans too are open to criticism for their hazy notions of foreign 
places. An inexcusable blunder is that in Phillips' Popular 



1 London Times, March 12, 1884. An item in the Chicago Hcraiii, April 5, 1852, refers to 
Tennyson as "Baron d'Eyncourt." Thus he is called in Lives 0/ English Authors (i8qo). His 
title is given as "baron Tennyson d'Eyncourt d'Aldworth," by Larousse {Dietionnaire Universel, 
2d. Supplement, p. 1914); and as "Baron Tennyson von Altworth," by Brock haus {Con-Lex. , vol. xv., 
p. 559), and by Meyer {Kon-Le.x.,\o\. xv., p. 5S9). The lUustrirtes Kon-Lex. says he was offered 
a Baronetcy in 1875. The International Cyclopedia says he was made a baron in 1883, as does Al- 
den's Cyc. o/Univ. Lit. and other compilations. From this showing it would appear that French 
and German erudition is about on a par with English and American. 

2 Mrs. Ritchie on "Alfred Tennyson," in Hayfier^s j\fagazine (Dec, 1S83), and Alice Maude 
Fenn on "The Borderlands of Surrey," in The Century (Aug., 18S2). 

3 Of the numerous works of reference which give Somerby as the poet's birthplace, are the 
following: Vapereau. Dietionnaire des Contemporains: Larousse. Dietionnaire Universel du 
XIXe Si'ecle, 2e. Supplement; Schem. Conversations-Lexicon; Meyer. Conversations-Lexicon. 
Brockhaus, etc. 



28 MISTAKES CONCERNING TENNYSON. 

Manual of E)igHs]i Literature^ vol. II., p. 497, where Biackdown 
is loosely referred to us "a hill in the vicinity of PetersficUi, Hamp- 
shire." Another writer is remiss in accepting statements implicitly 
and without question. A footnote in Kellogg's school edition of 
"Ih Memoriam," p. 33,, says "Hallam''\vas buried in Cleveland 
Church on the Severn, which empties into British Channel." If he 
had looked up the town for himself on the map of Englanil, he 
would have discovered that C evedon, the birthplace of Hallam, is 
situated on the bank of the Severn near its entrance to the Bristol 
Channel. 

VARIOUS ERRORS. 

' It is not m}'^ purpose to enumerate all the errors that I have come 
across in mv reading relating to Tennyson and his works. For the 
sake of brevitv, I merely correct a few of them without giving full 
particulars in every case. Tennyson first visited the Pyrenees in 
1S30 — not in 1S3 1 ; the second visit was in 1S62. He received the 
degree of D.C.L. in 1S55 — not in 1S59. His son Hallam was 
born at Twickenham, Aug. 11, 1S53; Lionel, at Freshwater, Isl^x. 
16, 1S54. 

Tennyson diil not write "Break, break, break" at Clevedon or 
Freshwater. The intercalary lyrics of "The Princess" were first 
published in the third edition — not in the second. The plot of "The 
Cup" is taken from Plutarch's treatise De Mulieruni l^irt/ztibus ; 
this work has been confused by Archer and Jennings with Boccaccio's 
Dc C/aris M/ilieribiis. 

Many unpardonable mistakes have been made in dating Tenny- 
son's published writings, also in wording and punctuating their 
titles. It has been s;iid that "The Princess" first appeared in print 
in 1S46 and iS49;"In jNIemoriam," in 1S49 and 1S51; "Idyls of the 
King," in 1S55, 1S5S, and 1S61; "Enoch Arden," in 1S65; "The 
Holy Grail, and Other Poems," in 1S67 and 1S70; "Harold," in 
1S77; "Becket," in 1S79 and 1SS5; "Tiresias, and Other Poems," in 
1SS6; and "Demeter, and Other Poems," in 1S90. In Hart's 
Manual of English Literature^ one of Tennyson's poems is 
named "The Vision of Art," and a recent German cyclopCilia makes 
him the author of "Tristam and Iseult." A newspaper account of 
the sale of Tentivsoniana in London contains the queer bit of misin- 
formation that Poems l>v Two Brothers "was published by Louth in 
1S26." These slips could have been easily avoided. The mystery 
hanging about the Laureate's life does not involve his works. 

It is believed that the following list, which has been carefully 



MISTAKES CONCERNING TENNYSON. 



29 



1S26 (dated 1S37) 



1830 



1S33 (dated 1833) 
1842 



verified, is correct both as to the titles and the dates of first pubHca- 
tion of all of Tennyson's books, viz: 

Poems by Two Brothers 

Poems, chiefly Lyrical 

Poems . - . . 

Poems, 3 vols. 

The Princess ... 

In Memoriam ... 

Maud, and Other Poems - 

Idyls of the King 

Enoch Arden, etc. 

The Holy Grail, and Other Poems 

Gareth and Lynette, etc. - 

Queen Mary - 

Harold .... 

The Lover's Tale ... 

Ballads, and Other Poems 

The Cup and The Falcon 

Becket .... 

Tiresias, and Other Poems 

Locksley Hall Sixty Years After, etc. 

Demeter, and Other Poems 

The Foresters - - . 



S47 
850 

S35 

S59 
S64 

S69 

872 

S75 
876 
879 
880 
884 
S84 
8S5 
SS6 
889 
892 



TRANSLATIONS OF TENNYSON'S WORKS. 



C.KRMAN. 

Gedichtc: iib. vonJW. HcrtzbcrK. Dessau, 185:5. Dresden, 
1S68. 

Ausge'.viihlte Dichtiingi-n: iib. von A. Strodtmann (Hibliothek 
Klassikcr in deutscher Uebertraguns, Leipzig, 181)5-70). 

Ausgewiihlte Dichtungen: iib. von H. A. Ftldniann. Ham- 
burg, 1870. (Bib. ausl. Klassiker). 

AusgewAhlte Ccdichte: iib. von M. Ru^'ard. Klbing, 1872. 

In Memoyitim: Aus dein Kni;'. nach dt-r 5. Aufl. Braunsch- 
weig, 1854. 

F>eund,-s='.llage. Nach "In Memoriam," frei iibertragen von 
R. Waldmiillfr=Puboc. Hamburg, 1870. 

In Memoriam: iib. von Agnes von liohlen. Berlin, 1S74. 

MauJ: iib. von V. W . Weber. Paderborn, ISiU. 

KonigsiJyllen: iib. von W. Scholz. Berlin, 18t)7. 

Konigsiiiynen: iib. von H. A. IVklnumii. Hamburg, 1872. 

Kdnigsuiylh'ii: iib. von C. Weiser (vols. 1817, 1S18 Universal 
-= Hibliothek, Leipzig, 1883-0). 

Enoch Arden: iib. von R. Schellwien. Quedlinburg, 1867. 

Enoch Arden: iib. von R. Waldmiiller = Duboc. Hamburg, 
18C8-70. 

Enoch Arden: iib. von F. W. Weber. Leipzig, 1S69. 

Enoch Arden und Godiva: iib. von H. A. Feldmann. Ham- 
burg, 1870. 

Enoch Arden: iib. von C. Hessel. Leipzig, 1874. (490 in 
Universal= Bibliothek). 

Enoch Arden: iib. von A. Strodtmann. Berlin, 1876. 

Enoch Arden: iib. von C. Kichholz. Hamburg, 1881. 

Enoch Arden: iib. von H. Gricbenow. Halle, 1889. (Bib. 
der Gesammt—Litteratur). 

Enoch Arden: frei bearbeitet fiir die Jugend. Leipzig, 1SS8. 

Aylmers I'eld: iib. von F. W. Weber. Leipzig, 1869. 

Aylmers I'eld: iib. von H. A. Feldmann. Ebend, 1870. 

llarald: iib. von Albr. Graf Wickenburg. Hamburg, 1879. 

Locksley Il<tll: iib. von K. Vvt:\\\%xa.\.\\—Locksley Hall sechzig 
Jahre sj>iiter: iib. von J. Keis. Hamburg, 1888. 

Locksley Hall sechzig Jahre s/idier: iib von K. B. F.smarch. 
Gotha, 188S. 



DUTCH. 

The Miller s Daughter. Freely tr. by A. J. de Bull. Utrecht, 
1859. 

Vier Idyllen van Konig Arthur. Amsterdam, 18S3. 

Enoch Arden. Tr. by S. J. van den Rergh. Rotterdam, 1869. 

Enoch Arden. Tr. by J. L. Wertl^im. Amsterdam, 1882. 

DANISH AND NORWEGIAN. 
The May Queen. Tr. by L. Falck. Christiania, 1S55. 
Anna og Locksley Slot. Oversat af A. Hansen. 1872. 
Idyller om Kong Arthur. Ov. af A. Munch. 1876. 
Enoch Arden. Tr. by A. Munch. Copenhagen, 1866. 
Sea Dreams and Aylmers Field. Tr. by F. U. Mynster. 
1877. 

SWEDISH. 

Konung Arthur och hans riddare. Romantish diktcykel. 
Upsala, 1876. , 

Elaine. Endikt. Tr. by A. Hjelmstjerna. 1877. 

FRENCH. 

Les I.fylles du Roi. Enide, Viviane, Elaine, Genievre. Trad. 
par F. Michel. 1869. 
Enoch Arden. Trad, par M. de La Rive. 1870. 
Enoch Arden. Trad, par X. Mannier. 1S87. 

Enoch Arden. Trad, par M. I'abbe R. Courtois. 2e edition. 
1890. 

Enoch Arden. Trad, par E. Duglin. 1890. 

Idylles et Pocmes: Enoch Arden: Locksley Hull. Traduits 
en vers frangais par A. Buisson du Berger. 1S88. 

SPANISH. 

EnidsLXiA Elaine. Tr. by L. Gisbert. 1875. 

Poentes de Al/redo Tennyson — Enoch Arden, Gareth y Lyn- 
etie, Merliry Bibiana, etc. Tr. by D. Vicente de Arana. Barce- 
lona, 1883. 

ITALIAN. 

Idilli, Liriche, Mite e Leggende^ Enoc Arden. Tr. by C. 
Faccioli. Verona, 1876. 

Toininaso Crammero e Maria e Filippo.* Tr. by C. Faccioli. 
Verona, 1878. 

II Prima Diverbio.'^ Tr. by E. Castelnuovo. Venice, 1886. 
La Prima Lite.\ . Tr. by P. T. Pavolini. Bologna, 18S8. 

* Selections from Tennyson's "Queen Mary." 

+ "The First Quarrel." 

LATIN. 
In Hfemoriam. Tr. into Elegiac verse by O. A. Smith. 1866. 
Enoch Arden: Poema Tennysonianum Latine Redditum W 

Sel\vy.n. London, 1867. 
*■ 
Horn Tennvsoniantp: sive Ecloga; e Tennysono Latine Red 
ditae A. J. Church. London and Cambridge, 1870. 



10- 



-'^N'i''' 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




